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Optima Pizza Express Napoli Oven: Make Wood Fired Pizza at Home

November 26, 2021 //  by Uju//  8 Comments

Optima Pizza Express Napoli oven review

We are big fans of pizza — and fans of big pizza — at Babes HQ. The Babes About Town guide to London’s finest pizzas was one of our more popular posts. So when a chap called Marcin invited us to try out his portable pizza oven, it was an offer we couldn’t refuse (cue Godfather theme music). Pizza United** is a family-run business and they also happen to be the exclusive UK distributors of the Optima Pizza Express Napoli. This is a portable pizza oven designed to make restaurant-quality wood fired pizzas in the comfort of your kitchen.

Optima Pizza Express Napoli Oven: Make Wood Fired Pizza at Home

When the package arrived, I was slightly alarmed by the size of the box. Where would I stack such a thing? Fortunately, the pizza oven itself is fairly compact and should fit on the average countertop. It’s a handsome piece of kit too, in fire engine red and designed by Italian native Gabriele Ferrari.

‘Is it pizza for dinner?’ 

The 12-year-old was chomping at the bit. I said sure if he would be my assistant pizzaiolo. However, after reading the instructions, I realised this wasn’t going to be the quick meal I’d imagined. The recipe card suggested we make the pizza dough and let it sit in the fridge for up to three days for maximum flavour (you can also freeze batches for later use).

Marcin had kindly included bags of flour (white, wholewheat and gluten free), dry yeast and tinned tomatoes to help us create pizzas. I made my own marinara sauce to use with toppings of ham, mushroom, pepperoni and grated mozzarella. Yum.

Optima Pizza Express Napoli oven making pizza

Kids Love Making Pizza Dough At Home

Making pizza dough is a fun activity to do with kids of any age as it’s tactile, messy play. There’s an art to it too although for us newbies it was mostly trial and error.

Optima Pizza Express Napoli oven review Jed pizza chef

We had to make a few adjustments since we were using dry yeast as opposed to the fresh yeast proposed by the recipe. But we weren’t aiming for perfection, just great tasting pizzas. And I’m happy to say the Optima Pizza Express Napoli pizza oven delivered.

Authentic pizza dough might take days to get ready but the pizza oven itself takes minutes. You have to heat the oven for about 12 minutes to get things started. After that, you use the wooden spatulas provided to slide your pizza onto the oven and get cooking. 

Be extra careful using the pizza oven when it’s on as it gets extremely hot. The Optima Pizza Express Napoli heats up to 450°C in just 10-15 minute — the same temperature as a professional pizza oven! It’s useful to have an assistant as operating it alone can be fiddly. If I could make a design change, I’d add an extra handle on the bottom to stabilise it when you open and close the lid. 

Fast and Delicious Wood Fired Pizzas

Optima Pizza Express Napoli oven wood fired pizza

The booklet recommended 4-5 minutes per pizza. That was too long for our first pizza which was overly charred on the bottom. We timed our next pizzas for 3 and a half minutes each and they turned out perfect. Delicious pizzas with that smoky, wood-fired taste. We devoured our pizzas so quickly that the next time, I decided to try a faster recipe. Why spend days waiting for something that’s wolfed in seconds?! 

Optima Pizza Express Napoli oven review wood fired pizza

Pizza Express (the restaurant) had posted their Margherita pizza recipe online during lockdown. So we made a version of it with our own toppings that took around half an hour from start to finish. They turned out nicely although I could definitely tell the difference in flavour. However, the boys wolfed them down and gave the quickie pizzas four thumbs up.

You can also make calzone, flatbread, frozen pizza and more with the oven. We’ll keep experimenting. My goal is for the boys to add it to their repertoire of meals they can make alone, while mum and dad put our feet up. I’ll let you know how that goes. One thing I can say is the Optima Pizza Express Napoli oven is excellent value for money because we haven’t ordered a takeaway pizza since!

Optima Pizza Express Napoli oven kids love

The Optima Pizza Express Napoli oven costs £169 retail and is manufactured in Italy but fitted with a standard UK plug. You can get a £10 discount using the code BABESABOUTTOWN at checkout.

Find out more at pizzaunited.co.uk

Read more reviews:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/reviews/optima-pizza-express-napoli-pizza-oven-review

https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/house-garden/kitchen-appliances/best-indoor-pizza-oven-home-b1818998.html

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/pizzaunited.co.uk

**Pizza United gifted us with an oven for this review. All opinions are strictly our own. They are also offering a pizza oven to our followers, giveaway details coming soon. Stay tuned!

Optima Pizza Express Napoli Oven: Make Wood Fired Pizza at HomeOptima Pizza Express Napoli Oven: Make Wood Fired Pizza at HomeOptima Pizza Express Napoli Oven: Make Wood Fired Pizza at Home
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Category: Food, LifeTag: eat London with kids, things to do with kids at home, wood fired pizza

About Uju

Uju Asika is a writer, blogger and creative consultant. She is the author of Raising Boys Who Do Better: A Hopeful Guide for a New Generation (DK/Penguin Random House), Bringing Up Race: How to Raise a Kind Child in a Prejudiced World (Yellow Kite/Hachette UK) and the delightful picture book A World for Me and You, illustrated by Jennie Poh (Hachette Children's Group). Uju's books are available at Bookshop.org, Amazon, Waterstones and other good bookshops. Follow Uju @babesabouttown on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ellen Nixon

    December 27, 2021 at 7:08 pm

    Would be class to be able to make my own pizza with this if I won

  2. Rebekah

    December 29, 2021 at 6:58 pm

    I would bin the BBQ and have a Pizza party, I mean any excuse for pizza but with this bad boy summer evenings, Pizza in oven wine in hand, living the Dream

  3. John Chau

    December 30, 2021 at 7:08 pm

    I’d make a pepperoni pizza in that thing. Not sure which shape I’d settle on though…

  4. TracyMarie Small

    January 10, 2022 at 10:11 am

    I am vegan and at last would be able to make myself a decent pizza with lots of stunning fresh vegetables

  5. TIFFANY GREEN

    January 10, 2022 at 6:36 pm

    Wow this is needed in my life! Your pizza came out looking so good!

  6. JOHN FRASER

    January 10, 2022 at 8:05 pm

    The OPTIMA PIZZA EXPRESS NAPOLI Oven really rings all bells and whistles, would experiment and create imaginative and mouth watering pizzas, a sumptuous prize.

  7. dan

    November 15, 2022 at 11:49 pm

    where can you buy in the USA?

  8. Uju

    November 17, 2022 at 11:10 am

    I don’t have those details I’m afraid, it’s worth searching for the brand name or you can contact the manufacturers directly!

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I’m Uju, author, blogger, screenwriter. I curate cool finds and experiences for city families. Read more…

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